A Paralympic champion explains how Riding for the Disabled changed her life.

Sophie Christiansen has a picture of herself, aged 13, clutching an enormous trophy and a red rosette. “Don’t show it to anyone else; it’s so embarrassing,” she pleads. But the picture is proof that even then Sophie, who was born with cerebral palsy, was determined to succeed. “I could see she had talent from the beginning,” says Clive Milkins, her trainer at the South Bucks Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA).

Now aged 22, Sophie has been a medal-winning member of Britain’s dressage team at two Paralympics; she’s also passed her driving test and graduated from university with a first-class degree in Advanced Mathematics. “I like to fulfil my potential in all areas,” she says.

But it was through Riding for the Disabled that Sophie – who has only partial control of her limbs and struggles with balance and co-ordination – first tasted success. “To find a sport where I could compete against like-bodied people was life-changing.”

She was referred to Riding for the Disabled by a physiotherapist at her school, who thought it would help with her walking. Within a few weeks of being in the saddle at the local centre in Wakefield, her co-ordination and core stability began to improve. “Riding is so much more fun than doing boring physio exercises,” Sophie says.

When she started secondary school, Sophie moved to the South Bucks RDA group, and after a few months of Clive’s teaching, she was bringing home rosettes.

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The Paralympic call-up came in 2004. Sophie went to Athens to represent Britain at dressage with no real expectations. “I told myself I was just doing it for the experience.”

Clive had other ideas, though. “I had a premonition that she was going to get a medal.”

He was right. Sophie ended up in bronze-medal position in the classification for severely disabled athletes. “Everybody just started crying,” she says. “But for me it was the start of a new phase in my life. I grew up when I went to Athens.”

Before the Games, Sophie was shy and self-conscious about her stilted speech and unsteady walk. But the experience in Greece defined her, she says. “I started to believe in myself.”

Sophie, who went on to win three medals at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008, now makes regular visits to local schools to show disabled children her medals. “I want them to see what can be achieved from grassroots RDA.”

Yasmin, 15, who also suffers from cerebral palsy, hopes one day to be competing at top-level competitions like Sophie. “When Yasmin first sat on a horse, her whole outlook changed,” says her mother, Gisele. “She looks at Sophie and sees there is hope. Many disabled children don’t think they’ve any chance.”

Sophie’s sights are now firmly focused on London 2012. “The amazing thing about the Paralympics is that everyone there has overcome some kind of personal challenge. If we can do it, everyone else can, too.”

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